Month: August 2020

Within the past 5 years, the number of domain registrars and website hosting companies have grown exponentially. As a result of this explosive growth, it can be challenging to select a domain registrar among the many companies that provide domain registry services.

Some registrars specialize in selling domain names. While others sell additional features such as web hosting, security, email marketing solutions and cloud services. With some domain registrars, the list of services they offer are endless.

Two of the most well known domain registrars are Namecheap and GoDaddy. Before we take a look at the features of each of these services, let’s explore some features that you should look for in a great domain registrar.

How to Select a Reliable Domain Registrar

When you are researching domain registrars, you must remember that each registrar has access to the same domain names and URLs. This means that no company can provide you with better URL names than other companies.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you select a domain registrar. What features are being offered with the domain registry package? Is the price competitive with other domain registrars? If not, what features are being offered to compensate for the price difference? Has the company created processes that make it easy for you to manage your services without assistance?

This is a list of things you should pay attention to as you conduct your research.

1. Additional or hidden fees associated with transferring your domain name
2. History and reputation of providing quality services
3. Reasonably-priced services
4. Accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned of Names and Numbers(ICANN)
5. Easy domain transfer and forwarding services
6. 24/7 customer support
7. Private WhoIs registration
8. Manual and automatic renewal features

There are plenty of domain registrars that come and go. It is important to pay close attention to the terms and conditions of your service provider.

When you visit your prospective domain registrar’s websites, you should stay focused on your immediate needs. With all of the services that are provided, it can be easy for you to get distracted by the numerous specials and offerings on the website.

Competitive pricing should be a factor as you select your domain registrar, but it should not be the only factor. Make your final decision by considering all of the features that were mentioned earlier in this review.

Many experts recommend that customers use a different domain registrar and website hosting service. If you decide to change to another website hosting service, having your domain name with the same registrar can complicate the matter. You should ask the customer representative of your prospective domain registrars if switching your domain registry to another website host will cause any disruptions.

Namecheap vs GoDaddy – Which Domain Registrar is the Best?

If you have been contemplating whether to subscribe to Namecheap or GoDaddy, this review will help you sort out the details associated with each domain registrar. Our primary goal is to help you make an informed decision after you read this comparison of Namecheap and GoDaddy.

Namecheap

As a leading domain registrar that is accredited by ICANN, Namecheap has developed a strong market share since it was founded in 2000. Namecheap has provided over 4 million domain names to customers throughout the world. Although Namecheap’s core business is domain registry services, it provides additional services including web hosting, email hosting, security and cloud-based services.

Godaddy

In terms of size and market domination, GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar. In fact, GoDaddy has over 30 percent of the domain registry market share.

This company has provided more than 59 million domain names registered throughout the world. GoDaddy provides a wide array of services including email aliases, online marketing tools, search engine optimization, privacy protection and sub domains.

Price

Both Namecheap and GoDaddy offer various advertisement promotion codes that are available on several websites on the internet. Since both sites offer so many services to customers, it would be difficult to compare the prices of each service. For the purposes of this review, we will compare the prices of a 1-year renewal rate for domain names of each site.

Namecheap

$10.69 each year to purchase a .com domain
and $8.88 + ICANN fee, for new domain name registrations.

GoDaddy

$11.99 each year to purchase a .com domain

Namecheap and GoDaddy offer various prices on .net, .org, .info, .co, .biz .io and .us domains. On both sites, you can receive additional discounts if you pay in full for service for multiple years. GoDaddy and Namecheap allow you to register your domain name for up to 10 years. There are also several Godaddy alternatives.

Overall, prices are cheaper on Namecheap + they offer you Privacy Protection for FREE, where as on GoDaddy this is a premium addon.

Namecheap and GoDaddy – Pros and Cons

When you are looking for a domain registry service, you must keep in mind that the perfect domain registrar does not exist. Every domain registrar has good and bad aspects.

With that said, there are pros and cons associated with Namecheap and GoDaddy.

Pros – Namecheap

• Good service and security features
• ICANN Accreditation
• Domains are simple to transfer
• Minimal upsell tactics
• Knowledgeable help desk
• 24/7 customer support via help desk
• Competitive price points for all services

Cons – Namecheap

• Some new domain extensions can be very expensive.
• Customer support needs improving

Pros – GoDaddy

• Large, trusted brand in the domain name registry industry
• Easy to purchase and select a domain name
• Website seems easy to navigate and understand the offerings
• 24/7 customer support
• A wide range of services with GoDaddyPro
• Customer support representatives are helpful and knowledgeable
• Accredited ICANN

Cons – GoDaddy

• Check-out process can cause confusion
• Domain manager is not integrated into same window as other features
• Difficult domain transfer process
• Too many instances of upsell
• Long customer support wait times
• Due to promotions and upsell tactics, there are a lot of pop-up specials on the screen. This can be annoying when you are trying to navigate quickly around the site.

As you compare Namecheap and GoDaddy, be mindful that GoDaddy is a larger company. There some problems that large companies experience. For example, GoDaddy may not have as many personal touches as Namecheap.

Namecheap is a smaller company. As a result, it can provide more personalized attention and services for its customers.

Overall User Experience

Your time is limited. So your domain registrar should provide an easy-to-navigate user experience for you. Managing your domain name should not consume a large amount of your time during the day. This section of the review will explore the overall user experience including point of purchase, use and navigation.

Namecheap
The overall check-out process for this domain registrar is quick and seamless. The process is straightforward, and there are not a lot of upselling tactics to disrupt your experience.

Namecheap provides a good search engine for domain name suggestions. When you enter this site, you will notice that Namecheap does not have all of the bells and whistles like its larger competitor. Namecheap offers a quick live chat feature, but it lacks telephone support services.

GoDaddy
The GoDaddy website experience is lively and colorful. At first glance, you can the company has a lot of offerings. However, the hustle and bustle associated with this website can be confusing.

First of all, GoDaddy is the epicenter of upsells. With each click of your mouse, you will be bombarded with an advertisement for a different special. If you want to get a domain name quick, fast and in a hurry, the constant upsells can stall your progress.

GoDaddy offers both telephone and live chat support options. This feature is good for you if you need a solution to a problem that you cannot figure out on your own.

GoDaddy offers a domain management feature. However, the domain manager opens in another window. This feature makes the user experience feel segmented and disjointed.

DNS Management Interface

The DNS management window is the sections that enables you to make changes. Unless you have a technology manager, you will be making all of your DNS changes manually. You may have to reroute your DNS to your web host, configure sub domains and set up emails related to your domain. The DNS management interface needs to be user-friendly.

Namecheap’s DNS Management Interface
Namecheap offers a streamlined DNS management interface. It is free from clutter and unnecessary upsell offers. Namecheap’s layout is straightforward. It is constructed in a way that minimizes the time it takes for you to quickly make changes and leave the site.

GoDaddy’s DNS Management Interface
GoDaddy has a more cluttered DNS management interface. There are additional features on the management interface that do not add value to the customer experience.

For example, you may notice features on your DNS management interface that you did not purchase. This part of the site features extra settings for GoDaddy’s upsell subscriptions. These features get in the way of functionality and make the user experience burdensome.

Domain Name Extras

It is not uncommon for domain registrars to provide extra services that are included in the price of your subscription price. After all, there is so much competition that they need to do make an extra effort to differentiate their services from the other companies in the domain registry industry.

Namecheap Extras

• 100 percent free email forwarding services
• Reliable DNS (no history of company being hacked)
• WhoIs privacy feature is bundled
• Namecheap charges $3 for photo storage and limited hosting package
• Free custom name servers

GoDaddy Extras

• GoDaddy charges an additional fee for custom name servers
• GoDaddy provides a limited hosted package and photo storage for free for 1 year
• GoDaddy charges an additional fee for WHOIS guard
• GoDaddy offers email as an upsell package
• GoDaddy offers a reliable DNS, but the site has been hacked

Namecheap and GoDaddy Upsell Tactics

The internet has evolved so much during the past 20 years that it is hardly recognizable. As technology improves, the need for specialized services grow.

As a result of the internet’s continuous growth, it is not unusual for both Namecheap and GoDaddy to provide customers with the opportunity to take advantage of other offers. This tactic is actually a valuable service for customers, and a lucrative marketing opportunity for domain registrars.

When it comes to using upsell tactics, the GoDaddy website seems to be aggressive and pushy. It seems as if the annoying upsells advertisements do not give you time to make a conscious decision about whether you need to purchase the additional service. If you do not like pushy marketing strategies, visiting the GoDaddy website can frustrate you.

In terms of upsells, Namecheap and GoDaddy offer some of the same packages for hosting and storage. Some of the most common upsells for each of the domain registrars include SSL certificates.

Company Values

If you are like most people, you like to support companies that have admirable company values. When you support any company, you are providing them with the means to further their messages and position in the marketplace.

Namecheap publicly opposes the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA). The purpose of this legislation was to limit the freedom of internet users. Namecheap believes that every person should have the right to use the internet as they desire in a responsible manner without legislative restraints.

GoDaddy actively supports the SOPA legislation. They also support marketing practices that attempt to lock their customers into extended agreements. Another practice they have is using sexual exploitation to market their services.

Although many of these practices may not offend you, it is good to be aware of the values of each of the companies.

Namecheap vs. GoDaddy – Conclusion

The purpose of this review is to provide you with enough information to help you select a domain registrar that meets your needs. Our goal for this review is to tell you whether Namecheap or GoDaddy is the best domain registrar, in our opinion.

Our opinion is that NameCheap is the the best.

Namecheap and GoDaddy are both good domain registrars in their own right. Both of the registrars provide domain names at reasonable prices. They have solid security features, flexible domain management services, around the clock customer support and dynamic DNS performance. Another positive feature associated with Namecheap and GoDaddy is they provide freebies when you get services.

If you like domain registrars that offer a few services, provide a user-friendly interface and minimizes upsell tactics, Namecheap might be a clear choice for you.

What is Weebly?

With more than 50 million websites powered by this website builder, Weebly has become the number one choice for many. Started in 2007, Weebly claims to be the tool that takes a raw business from its infancy to its launch and later growth.

Interestingly, Weebly started out as a basic website builder, however, in recent years, as it has been acquired by Square Inc. (a payment gateway), it has fast become an e-commerce platform.

Therefore, no matter whether you are going to build a basic blog website, a portfolio website or an online store, Weebly claims to turn your business dreams into entrepreneurial realities.

Weebly’s claims aside, you need to ask yourself: is Weebly for me? Short answer – it would come down to your business requirements and personal preferences. This blog covers what you can and cannot do with Weebly and which plan you should choose.

Ease of Use

Weebly is beginner-friendly. One can find everything right in front when it comes to editing.

Weebly is based on WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) layout. Meaning whatever editing you will do in the editor it will be the same in the preview or final publishing. Moreover, you can preview your site right from the editor. You would not need to go back and forth between making changes and previewing them. You can also add the website pages right from the menu.

When it comes to ease of use, you just need to drag the elements from the left panel and drop them onto your website. Adjust the elements as you wish.

However, Weebly’s editor is structured in nature. That means you just can’t drag and drop the elements anywhere you want. You will have limited freedom to show your creativity.

Themes

Unlike some of its competitors, Weebly offers around 50 templates for its users. These templates are designed for different purposes such as:

• Business
• Blogging
• Online Store
• Portfolio
• Personal (CV or Resume)
• Event/Shows

You can preview the theme right at the start of choosing the template. It would better help you to visualize your website. Moreover, unlike many of its competitors, Weebly allows you to change your theme at any point in time. That means you have the freedom to give your site a fresh look whenever you feel like it.

However, when you create an online store there are some customization limitations. For example, Weebly does not offer a variety of colors in the palette. Once you choose a color, it will be applied to the whole website. However, you can make changes in the individual elements. Also, it would not let you change the footer’s color. On the other hand, you can always make limitless changes, if you know how to code.

Weebly has an amazing feature that most of its competitors do not offer. This feature would let you upload your own theme. With this facility, the Weebly templates range almost becomes limitless.

To import your theme you will need the following files:

• A zip file containing your theme
• Template layout data in index.html
• Style information in main_style.css
• Theme images file

App Center

Weebly has an extensive app store. Around 350 apps are available to complete your website. Mostly these apps are provided by third parties. However, some of the apps are provided by Weebly itself.

Moreover, these are Weebly compatible apps. Meaning you would not need to add these apps via coding. All you need to do is click the “Add Button” and you can use the app.

Some of these apps are paid while others are free, yet there is another category of apps which are free for a while and then you need to pay for them. Moreover, there are some apps which are free but offer limited features till you pay to unlock their extra features.

These apps are mostly related to:

• E-commerce
• Communication
• Marketing
• Social media
• Accounting
• Sales

Thus, you can add interesting features to your site using these apps such as Facebook Messenger, Facebook Chat and more.

SEO

Previously it was thought that websites built with a website builder cannot rank on Google. That was actually true. However, that is a matter of the past. Now, all you need to rank higher on Google and other search engines is to optimize your website strategically.

For this purpose, Weebly lets you edit meta titles. The meta title is the title that is shown in Google search results with every link. It should have the keyword of your page.

Moreover, you can edit the meta description as well. The meta description is the description shown in Google search under the meta title. It helps the reader know what the content is about before clicking on the link. 

You can also edit and customize the URLs and Alt images. SEO really likes clean URLs and Weebly makes it easy for you.

It also lets you create 301 redirects. These come into play when you change the URL and create a new one. 301 redirects automatically redirects the visitors to the new URL.

Moreover, all the Weebly plans include SSL security. SSL encryption makes your website safe for sensitive information such as credit/debit card information.

Marketing

Weebly Promote is specifically made for this purpose. A powerful tool, it would let you create beautiful email campaigns to boost your sales.

This tool has following features:

• It automatically syncs with your Weebly website
• Ready-made yet customizable layouts
• Drag and Drop builder
• Reports that show the email opening and click

Moreover, you can add forms to capture leads through your Weebly’s website.

E-Commerce

Weebly has worked extensively on its e-commerce. It could be because it was acquired by Square in 2018.

As mentioned earlier, you can sell digital as well as physical products with Weebly with multiple payment options. You can add interesting and engaging product videos, zooming effects, product description, etc.

You can also add filter search where users can set the filter such as filter for specific size or price range to search for the required product.

You can also add a shopping cart. Weebly’s Business Plus plan also offers abandoned cart recovery. With this you can contact a visitor who added a product in their cart but did not check out.

You can also add coupon codes and offer your visitors discounts. Unlike many website builders, Weebly also offers tax and shipping calculators. Its Business Plus plan offers a real-time shipping calculator.  

Customer Support

Weebly has worked extensively on its customer support. Here are the customer support touchpoints that Weebly offers:

• Help Center
• Phone Call
• Forum
• Live Chat
• Social Media
• Email
• In-app help

You can access Weebly’s knowledgebase through its help center. Just enter the keywords and get an instant help guide.

You can use the live chat facility as well as an email to get in touch with the customer representative. However, you can use these facilities once you get logged into your Weebly’s account. You will have to click the live chat and email link to send your query.

Moreover, you can use the forum to get in touch with the other users who are currently using Weebly. Weebly also provides help through its social media platforms. However, getting help through social media platforms would be a bit slower process.

Unlike many other website builders, Weebly has an amazing feature of In-app help for customer support. That means while building your website, you don’t need to open another tab to access the knowledge base. Just click the help icon available on the bottom right of the editor. (As shown in the image below). Moreover, you can go to the help center directly from the editor by clicking the help button from the menu.

Weebly phone call facility is available for its premium account holders only. This though does not mean that there’s a direct line to a Weebly customer support representative. To get help over the phone, you will have to click the talk link. Clicking the link will generate a unique pin number. You would be required to enter that pin while making a call to Weebly support center. This pin number would be valid for 30 minutes only, so you better note it down somewhere or keep the tab open. Otherwise, you will have to regenerate the pin number. This pin number is to specify your account, so the representative could access your account in no time.

Is Weebly Free?

Unlike many other website builders in the market, Weebly offers a free plan along with four premium plans. A free plan can help you a lot with understanding the platform in detail. You will be having plenty of time to design your website as well. Once you complete your website, you can always upgrade your site according to your website needs. You can also publish your website while staying in the free version. However, Weebly will show its advertisement at the bottom of your site.

Let’s look at what Weebly has to offer in its premium plans. These plans are:

• Connect
• Pro
• Business
• Business Plus

Connect

Connect is a basic plan. It would let you connect to your custom domain only. Keep in mind it would only let you publish your site on a custom domain. The domain will not come free of cost in this plan.

Furthermore, there will be Weebly ads in this plan along with limited storage (500MB only). Though SSL security is included in this package. It would cost you around $8 per month. However, by paying yearly or 2-yearly, you will save a lot. Savings are explained below.

Pro

Pro plan is meant for professionals, entrepreneurs or small businesses. It definitely offers more than the Connect plan and costs you accordingly. In $18 per month, you can remove the Weebly’s ads from your site, list up to 25 items for sale, get SSL security, video background and much more.

In this plan, you can get a free domain for the first year only. After that, you will have to pay $19.95 yearly.

Unlike the Connect plan, it offers unlimited storage, advanced site stats, site search and HD video + audio.

Business

The business plan is specifically designed for e-commerce. That means you can sell unlimited  items online and accept payments through Paypal.

With this plan, you can sell physical as well as digital products. Moreover, you can enable product reviews, add shipping and tax calculators and offer coupons to your customers.

This plan would cost you $35 per month. Just like other plans, you can save a lot by paying yearly or 2-yearly (explained in the chart below).

Business Plus

The Business plus plan is meant for your growing online business that offers your more e-commerce features. 

Unlike the Business plan, this plan offers you abandoned cart recovery, real-time shipping rates and gift cards.

This plan costs $46 per month if you do not make yearly or 2-yearly payments. You can save by making yearly or 2-yearly payments.

Here is the detailed chart about Weebly’s pricing and its discount offers.

Conclusion

Weebly is an easy-to-use (beginner-friendly) website builder. So, if you are in a rush to build a website and/or you have a limited budget, you should seriously consider using Weebly. Furthermore, this is a great platform for those who do not know how to code.

If you are thinking of building an online store then consider Weebly as well. Weebly has almost every possible feature to offer you. In case, if Weebly does not offer a particular feature you require, you can always use Weebly’s app store.  Moreover, Weebly offers great SEO services.

However, due to its structured editor, Weebly is not recommended if you require full control of the editor. 

Best print on demand websites

1. Redbubble

There are many sites like redbubble on this list, however, red bubble is by far the most popular print on demand site. To find the popularity of each site, I looked up the traffic of each website to have an overview of which site got the most traffic.

Redbubble was the clear winner (see below). This is a valid reason to choose redbubble as your main print on demand marketplace since having a large audience is an important consideration when you are planning on selling through a marketplace.

The POD marketplaces will likely be the main source of traffic for many people. It makes sense then to choose a high traffic print on demand marketplace as the mainstay of your print on demand business.

Besides traffic, Redbubble has a huge selection of products to choose from. Here are some items you can sell with Redbubble:

Products you can sell on Redbubble

• Acrylic Blocks
• Art Boards
• Art Prints
• Canvas Prints
• Clocks
• Drawstring Bags
• Dresses
• Duvet Covers
• Framed Prints
• Galaxy Cases & Skins
• Greeting Cards
• Hardcover Journals
• iPad Cases & Skins
• iPhone Cases & Covers
• iPhone Wallets
• Laptop Skins
• Laptop Sleeves
• Leggings
• Metal Prints
• Mini Skirts
• Mugs
• One Piece – Long Sleeve
• One Piece – Short Sleeve
• Pillows & Cushions
• Postcards
• Posters
• Scarves
• Spiral Notebooks
• Stickers
• Studio Pouches
• Sweatshirts & Hoodies
• T-Shirts
• Tank Tops
• Tote Bags
• Wall Tapestries

Example Base Prices

• 11 oz Mug:  $12.50
• Classic T-Shirt: $16.25

If you are interested in seeing a full list of base prices, check out Redbubble base price list. Most other print on demand companies do not offer a comprehensive, up to date, list of products & base prices. Don’t ask me why, because this is useful information for sellers. Redbubble has gone through the trouble of creating a nice table of products.

2. CafePress

Even people who aren’t looking to use print on demand for their merchandise, have probably heard of CafePress. That’s good news for those looking to sell print on demand products. This means your items have a wider audience without as much effort on your part. It also means the prices are lower, and there are so many options when it comes to items to print.

CafePress is not only one of the oldest print on demand sites on this list, but it also has one of the biggest variety of products you can sell.

Whether you already have a booming brand or you are just starting out, the site will even help you set up your own shop. You can start right away by designing products to sell or quickly design products with your logo.

Products you can sell on CafePress

The following list may seem small, but within each of these print on demand product categories contain many products to choose from.

• New Products (such as car magnets, dog hoodies, etc)
• Apparel
• Baby
• Stickers, Buttons & Magnets
• Housewares
• Posters, Prints & More
• Hats & Bags
• Books (Bindings include Saddle Stitch, Wire or Perfect Bound

Example Base Prices

• 11 oz Mug: $10.99
• Men’s Classic T-Shirt: $15.99

Check out CafePress’ list of all products and base prices to see more.

3. Zazzle

Zazzle is probably one of the most well-known print on demand sites on the list, which can work to your advantage because it has a large audience. Zazzle also offers one of the largest selection of print on demand products on this list.

It also has over 1,300 items available for you to take advantage of, so there is almost no limit on how much you can create. There so many products you can choose from, you may not know where to start! The site even gives you tips on how to improve your print on demand products.

Products you can sell on Zazzle

The following list is by no means a complete list of Zazzle products. However here are some example products you can sell on Zazzle.

• Invitations & Stationery: Invitations, Greeting Cards, Return Address Labels
• Home: Mugs, Pillows, Magnets
• Clothing: T-Shirts, Leggings, Baby Clothing
• Accessories: Hats, Buttons, Tote Bags
• Baby & Kids: Blankets, Nursery, Art Bibs
• Weddings: Signs Favor, Tags, Wine Labels
• Crafts & Party Supplies: Stickers, Banners, Fabric
• Electronics: iPhone Cases, Mouse Pads, Keyboards
• Sports & Games: Playing Cards, Skateboards, Golf Balls
• Office: Business Cards, Small Business Supplies
• Wall Art: Posters, Canvas Art, Wood Wall Art

Example Base Prices

• 11 oz Mug: $14.95
• Men’s Basic T-Shirt: $17.95
• (or Men’s Value T-Shirt): $14.95

This review is an apples and oranges type of comparison. We are going to compare SiteGround and WP Engine to show which one is best. This isn’t quite a parallel comparison though because they each serve very different clients and have very different services.

SiteGround is a little more traditional in terms of offering shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and so on. WP Engine offers different plans based on monthly traffic, storage and how many sites you can create. SiteGround is a cPanel-based host that allows you to install scripts, like WordPress, while WP Engine is WordPress exclusive and is entirely geared towards this CMS.

Perhaps the only thing similar about them is that both are somewhat more expensive than their competitors, but they really give you what you pay for. These are premium hosts that treat their customers right, so it largely depends on whether you want a premium host with great features, or a specialty host dedicated to the most popular CMS on the Internet.

Let’s dive in and cover what they offer and what is both good and bad about both of them.

SiteGround (Grade: A+)

Love

Customer Support:

• SiteGround is a master when it comes to customer support. I can’t think of another host as transparent and fast as SiteGround in this respect. They are available at all hours, 24/7, whenever you need help. This includes phone, live chat or email tickets. This is one of SiteGround’s priorities.
• Both live chat and phone calls are answered immediately. There’s no holding or waiting. Within seconds you’ll be connected to an experienced staff member to answer either sales or technical questions. Email tickets are slower, but not by much. It only takes 10 minutes (often less) to get a response. They overstaff to balance even the busiest shifts.
• SiteGround has gone the extra step to make support a little more personal. While chatting online or sending an email ticket, you can access the staff member’s profile. This shows you their name, a picture and their technical experience.
• Whether due to overstaffing or enhanced training, the support staff doesn’t rush through the conversation or put you on prolonged holds. It feels like they are servicing you and only you. This is incredibly rare in the hosting industry and it’s a testament to SiteGround as a premium service provider.

Uptime and Speed:

• You get a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%, but most people find it’s actually closer to 99.995-99.999%. Aside from just using the best hardware available, SiteGround is highly innovative when it comes to tech. They built proprietary Linux Containers and have an in-house Server Monitoring program that constantly checks servers and predicts future problems, which are corrected long before they happen.
• SiteGround uses numerous software hacks, like NGINX and Cloudflare, along with top-notch SSD servers with all of their plans. Whether shared or dedicated, you’ll find this hardware is about 1,000x faster than disc-based servers.
• SiteGround gives you the ability to choose between several different data centers. As you might already know, proximity is important when hosting your website. If you live in America, do you think your website will be faster if it’s hosted in Chicago or Singapore? Obviously the former. Aside from Chicago and Singapore, you can also choose from Amsterdam or London. This allows you to host domestically, or branch out if you have an international website.
• Hacking isn’t just dangerous, it’s a hazard that slows down every website on the server. Brute force hacking sends thousands to millions of requests in an attempt to break a server. SiteGround battles this threat with their in-house AI that removes up to 500k-2m requests per hour. This means the vast majority of brute force requests don’t even reach the server.

Plans and Resources:

• Tired of fake “unlimited” bandwidth? So is SiteGround. That’s just a vague marketing term that makes it sound like you can accept billions of visitors every month, but that’s obviously not true. Most shared hosts only offer a small amount of true bandwidth and then force you to upgrade your plan.
• SiteGround gives you a rough estimate of how many visitors you can take per month with each plan. For example, their entry-level StartUp plan is good for 10,000 visitors per month. Each plan tells you explicitly what you are receiving.
• You’ll find a few plans for each service (shared, VPS, cloud, etc), but not so much that it feels bloated. It’s the perfect amount of choice.

Scripts and cPanel:

• Does “Standard cPanel” sound bad to you? Standard is a word we usually steer away from, but it’s actually good here. Many hosts have their own homebrew administrative panels that are clunky, buggy and just a mess. Getting the original cPanel is good because it’s simple and there’s tons of documentation to help if you have any problems.
• SiteGround uses Softaculous as their script installer. This program includes over 300 scripts for the biggest CMS programs like WordPress, Prestashop, Drupal and so much more. A script installer allows you to add the program to your website within a few clicks.
• If you have any problems with the scripts themselves, you’ll find that SiteGround is very educated on these programs. Come to them with your problems and they will find a solution.

Hate

Price:

• Really the only thing I hate about SiteGround is their price. Their StartUp plan is a reasonable $3.95 a month initially, but then it jumps to $11.95 a month when the trial period is finished. That’s a significant increase, so make sure your website is generating enough buzz or revenue to justify the cost.
• There are setup fees for the bigger plans, like VPS and dedicated hosting. However, outside of this, they are very good about not sneaking extra fees into their plans.
• Please be mindful that these prices are high when compared to similar shared hosts. WP Engine is a specialty host, so even their lowest price is much higher than this. Again, this is apples and oranges.

WP Engine (Grade A+)

Love

WordPress Excellence:

• This isn’t a host for WordPress newbies. You won’t be able to take advantage of the wealth of features here. If you are a developer, advanced user or regularly test, modify or produce themes or plugins, then you’ll love everything WP Engine has to offer.
• WP Engine gives you a separate staging area to test your newly developed or installed plugins or themes. This ensures that you can test them out without fear of destroying your current website. Go ahead and play around, really push the software to its limit and see what each plugin or theme can do.
• Comes with three separate environments for building, staging and producing plugins. There’s also Git and SFTP connections to keep developers happy. One-click staging makes it simple to rapidly test changes to see if the software is still working right after a change, or if something must be modified.
• The WordPress experience is managed. WP Engine will install major updates, test small ones to see if they are worthwhile before recommending them and their resources are all geared towards making the best of WordPress.

Plans and Resources:

• There are currently four plans to choose from with WP Engine. This eliminates shared, VPS, dedicated and other common options. Instead, your options are based on how many resources you want (along with extra features that may only be available to larger plans).
• Like with SiteGround, there’s no phony unlimited bandwidth here. You are told exactly how much bandwidth you get along with a rough estimate of how many visitors you can accept per month. The entry-level plan, StartUp, is good for 25,000 visitors, has 50GB of bandwidth and 10GB of storage for $35 a month.
• Larger plans will give you a significant increase in resources. For example, the next plan up gives you 200GB bandwidth, and the third plan gives you 400GB. This ensures you’ll always have all the resources you need as your site grows in popularity.
• While features change between each plan, all of them come with the Genesis Framework for rapid WordPress development and deployment, separate environments for development, StudioPress themes and so on. Even the smallest plan has some very advanced features.

Customer Support:

• WP Engine is staffed entirely by WordPress experts. These are people who live, eat and breathe WordPress, so they’ll be more than equipped to deal with the vast majority of problems. From something small like a plugin not installing correctly to a major bug that is destroying your website, the support staff is there to help.
• Was your website hacked? WP Engine will fix it for free. They consider it a lapse in their own security and will work on your website at no extra charge. That’s just reassuring and actually very nice of them to do.
• There is 24/7 live chat and phone support so that you can easily reach an expert with your problem. This ensures you can get help at any time.

Hate

Price:

• WP Engine might be an expert, but they are incredibly expensive. Even compared to their direct competition of WordPress specialists, WP Engine is one of the most expensive hosts you can find. However, they do give you a lot of features and extras, so this will likely be worth it for development teams.
• The price jumps a lot from one plan to the next. The StartUp plan is $35 while the next plan up is $115 per month. Yes, you get more resources, but that’s a huge jump in price. It only goes up from here.
• Another gripe is the number of websites you can host. The StartUp plan only allows for one single website. The next plan up only allows you to host five websites. That’s it. Other hosts would offer unlimited domains for a fraction of the StartUp price.

Customer Support:

• The customer support is great, don’t get me wrong, but entry-level users can’t take advantage of the 24/7 phone support. You only get access to the 24/7 live chat support. This should be good for most people, but why can’t you talk to someone after paying $35 a month? That seems crazy.
• You only get 24/7 phone support with the next plan up. This means you have to pay $115 a month for this feature. SiteGround gives you 24/7 support for less than $12 a month.

Restrictive:

• You know when you’re around an expert and they always point out when you’re wrong? WP Engine sometimes feels like that.
• In an effort to secure the best WordPress environment, they can be restrictive about which plugins and themes they allow you to install. Those that aren’t deemed good enough, or potentially harmful, often aren’t allowed. Some might see this as a good thing while others will see it as policing and annoying.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to compare WP Engine and SiteGround because they serve very different people. If you’re just an average user looking to start your first website (or maybe your second or third), then I have to go with SiteGround. SiteGround might be expensive compared to other similar hosts, but they are cheap by comparison and their services are made for all types of users.

However, if you’re a WordPress expert with a development team, then WP Engine is by far the best host. They truly are specialists in this field and give you features that SiteGround simply doesn’t offer. You have more room to explore your creativity along with increased safety if your coding doesn’t go perfectly.

In general, I find that SiteGround is better overall. This premium hosts gives most users all the features they need at a reasonable price. You also gain access to WordPress and 300 other scripts. However, if development is your thing, then WP Engine has some very attractive features that cannot be ignored.

Just consider your needs and experience and it should be easy to see which is best for you.

Are you looking for a way to create your own online dropshipping store? If yes, you obviously need AliDropship solutions!

AliDropship plugin gets chosen by thousands of people all over the globe. Both newcomers and experienced businessmen buy the plugin because they want to dropship products and manage their stores in a quick, easy and efficient way. AliDropship plugin lets a store owner have full control over the business, and means the absolute freedom in terms of the store management.

Shortly, this plugin is linked to your WordPress store and helps you pick products directly from AliExpress. As the result, the products along with their title, description, photos and reviews are automatically imported on your website.

There are two ways to use AliDropship solutions. One way is to order Ready Stores based on AliDropship plugin:

• Choose a Custom store if you want a 100% UNIQUE store created for your personal taste — and if you are ready to wait for 2 or 3 weeks.Perfect pick for those who prefer individual approach and freedom to decide what their store will sell and look like.
• Choose a Premium store if you would rather get a COPY of a booming store and reach the same success — and it’s ok with you that your store won’t be unique. Perfect pick for those who love fast and proven solutions and want to start earning asap.

Anyway, you become a 100% owner of an independent dropshipping website on the AliDropship platform.

The second option is to use AliDropship plugin and assemble a similar store yourself. This plugin is easily compatible with WordPress and WooCommerce platform, so, if you already have any WordPress website (even a simple blog), you can turn it into a fully functional eCommerce store!

AliDropship Review: The Best Features

So, the most outstanding part about AliDropship plugin is its opportunity to transform your WordPress site in a single click into ecommerce store. The plugin can turn any WordPress website into a fully functional drop shipping store with all the vital elements: product pages, shopping cart, payment gateways, etc

Here are some of its unique features.

Full Automation

The AliDropship plugin is fully loaded with automated solutions.

• Search & Import
• Auto Updating
• Pricing Automation
• Fulfil Orders Automatically
• ePacket Shipping Filter
• Auto Order Tracking

They help you search for products and import them to your site, achieve pricing automation by allowing you to set up your own margin when price fluctuates and initiate orders automatically by sending out order tracking.                                                                     

Site Customization

AliDropship incorporates several built-in themes and tools, which allow an easy site customization.

• Built-in Themes
• Product Customization
• Unlimited Number of Products
• Product Variations
• WooCommerce Support
• Built-In Image Editor

It lets you edit single product pages as well as category pages and bring unique content on them. In addition, you will enjoy the built-in Image Editor that lets you improve the on-site pictures with no need to install and use any external programs like Photoshop.

Marketing

Promoting your store in search engines and social networks is a cornerstone of any marketing strategy.

• Discount Coupons
• Product Reviews
• SEO Product Tags
• Abandoned Cart
• Email Lists

The plugin helps you to run sales and promotions by offering your visitors custom coupon codes; engage your customers and encourage sales with the option to import reviews onto your site directly from AliExpress; optimize your product pages for search engines with product specific meta tags, titles, descriptions and keywords and etc. Smart email notifications can become a powerful marketing tool for increasing your conversion rate and bring you new and repeat buyers!

Managing

AliDropship helps you create an online store that automatically performs some of the most important drop shipping tasks and make the right choices for your business as you monitor & control your sales, orders, traffic and all important webstore activities.

• Live Statistics
• Payment Gateways Integration
• Inventory Management
• All-in-One Dashboard
• Cash-Back System
• Free Updates & Support

The plugin supports all the most popular payment processors like PayPal, 2CO, Stripe, PayU and many more. Also, this plugin allows you to closely manage your entire inventory. You can track your stock counts and stop selling products when any inventory runs out.

Additional options 

Add-ons

Marketing add-ons are your best helpers to provide stable organic traffic from social networks, stimulate impulse buying, simplify email marketing and solve a pile of other tasks.

If you require special functionality, the add-on library is all you need as it comes with several items like Recent Sales Pop-Up, Countdown Timer and Facebook Business add-on.

While some of the add-ons require a one-time fee, others are free of charge!

AliDropship Review: The Pricing

AliDropship’s WordPress plugin only costs $89, and this one-time payment covers amazing features like updates, life-long support, automation, unlimited products and the core features mentioned above.

In case you want to order a custom dropshipping store, there are three packages to choose from. The basic one costs $299 and, above all else, includes 50 pre-imported products selected and edited by the team. There are no limitations on the amount of products you import yourself afterwards.

Other custom plans cost $499 and $899. These upgrades come with unique benefits including promo videos for your products and social media promotional tools.

All the packages require a one-time payment: there will be no recurring fees, and, throughout the use of AliDropship solutions, the customers can count on a free lifelong support.

AliDropship Review: Who is AliDropship For?

The AliDropship Plugin is intended for whoever desires to create his or her own online dropshipping store that uses AliExpress to supply products. The plugin is also perfect for people who would like to skip payment of monthly service fees for maintaining an online store.

In fact, it’s a really convenient way to monetise your hobby and to make money from an activity (or niche) that you genuinely love! 

Buy AliDropship plugin now to create online stores in minutes and make your first sales right away!